The next morning at breakfast was the first time Brad was truly confused, it started with Janet saying, "Magenta, did you bring any other clothes?"
"Brad brought me here from the hospital."
"Oh."
"We probably should go back to the castle." Brad choked on a piece of bacon,
"What did you just say?"
"To get clothes. I've been wearing these clothes for almost a week, they're starting to feel like cardboard."
And that's how everything started again...
"This was a bad idea." Brad muttered as they stood on the front step. Magenta pushed the door open, nobody was on the main floor.
"Hello?" Magenta called through the house, there was a scuffling noise upstairs and Rocky came careening down the stairs,
"MADEDTA! YOU BACK!" Rocky hug-tackled Magenta, squeezing her as gently as was possible for Rocky, which was still kind of hard...
"Hi, Rocky." said Janet, looking down in a weird shy way,
"Janet?" Rocky went back to hugging Magenta,
"I missed you, Rocky."
"Me too, Madedta, When you was gone C'lumbia maked me eat flour for breakfast. Come with me!" Rocky dragged Magenta upstairs, Brad ran close behind. Eventually slamming into a wall, narrowly missing Rocky, Frank burst into the hallway in a cloud of perfume and hairspray. Rocky stood in front of Magenta protectively, Brad moved closer to the spray-tanned bodybuilder.
"Magenta." Frank said, stoically, "You're back. I expect you'll be starting work again." Janet came running up the stairs, stopping when she saw Frank at the top of the staircase, they went back downstairs together.
That night, Brad came into Magenta's room after she had gone to bed and found her with Rocky's head in her lap, they were sitting on her bed, Magenta was stroking his corn-silk hair and whispering gently,
"Is everything okay in here?" Brad inquired, Magenta looked up and smiled slightly, Brad waited at the door,
"You know you can always come talk to me, right?" Brad heard Magenta say, "Okay, honey?" Rocky nodded, "Okay, go back to bed, alright?"
"Okay Madedta." Rocky stood up and left quietly, Brad sat down on the bed,
"What did he want?" Brad asked as he started to undress,
"Oh, Rocky? Just, general problems."
"Like his speech problem? No seriously."
"Him and Frank have been having problems lately..."
"What, he gets whipped?"
"I don't know, he never really says anything, I guess he just feels like he can relate to me, you know, because of why I left in the first place." Brad got under the sheets and wrapped his arms around Magenta's waist, reaching up to unpin the white doily out of her hair. She lay down slowly,
"You're so perfect." Brad breathed into Magenta's ear, "I love you so much, I'm not leaving you this time."
"I know, my love."
Magenta slowly descended the staircase to the kitchen, when she reached the bottom of the stairs, she saw a figure standing with it's back to her, standing in front of the fridge. Magenta walked past it to the water cooler, assuming it was Janet,
"So, how are you adjusting back to being a filthy little skank?" The figure asked, the voice was too deep to be Janet's. The person turned around, it was wearing a corset,
"Frank, please-" Frank thrust Magenta to the ground, whipping her back repeatedly,
"YOU *whip* FUCKING *whip* TRAMP! WHEN I TELL YOU NOT TO GO *whip* TO A *whip* HOSPITAL, YOU DON'T *whip* GO! *whip*" Magenta felt hot tears cut down her face,
"DON'T START *whip* CRYING AND TRYING TO MAKE ME FEEL*whip* SORRY FOR YOU! I CAN *whip* KILL YOU IF I *whip* WANT TO!" Frank pulled Magenta to her feet violently and dragged her to his room, making sure she hit her head hard on every step, he threw her to the floor of his room and took a syringe from his bedside table, it was full of something, obviously a drug.
"Stay still or I kill you." Frank jabbed the needle into Magenta's flesh, she screamed, Frank kicked her between the eyes, some blood flowed onto the hardwood. That was the last thing Magenta saw before she passed out.
Brad woke up the next morning to find Janet standing over him with tears in her eyes,
"What the hell do you want?"
"It's Magenta."
"Are you getting jealous again?"
"NO! She's in my room, just, come." Janet dragged Brad down the hall and pointed to Magenta, who was sitting on Janet's bed, covered in blood and shivering.
"Frank dropped her in my room last night, he drugged her! He injected her with heroin!" Brad sat down next to Magenta, pulling her tightly against himself, Frank emerged in the doorway, Janet squealed and sat down on Magenta's other side,
"How sweet."
"Please don't do this..." Janet pleaded, Frank shoved her aside and grabbed Magenta, dragging her away down the hall,
"LET GO OF HER!" Brad screamed, a door slammed, somebody screamed and was immediately silenced, there was whipping noise, a few thumps and what sounded like splintering wood. Brad saw Magenta get shoved out of the room, slamming into the wall on the other side of the hallway, her skirt was ripped and her entire bare chest was exposed from the collar of her dress and bleeding. There was blood on her hands,
"He... killed them... Riff and Columbia, Frank just killed them." Magenta collapsed on the floor in tears. Frank exited the room and whipped her again.
"YOU DICK!" Janet shrieked, "YOU FUCKING BASTARD!" Brad gathered Magenta up and backed away, Frank departed down the hall.
Janet stood outside the bathroom door as Brad helped Magenta shower, she couldn't see anything through her tears. She loved Frank, even more than she'd ever loved Brad. It was sick the way he treated Magenta, Brad would never treat her like that, Janet sat down on Magenta and Brad's bed and let her tears pour. Brad opened the door, Magenta gripping his arm, she was wearing a white nightgown, Janet stood up as Magenta lay down next to where Brad was sitting. He broke the silence,
"Where are you sleeping tonight, Janet?"
"Don't know, last night I slept with Rocky, well, under Rocky... But don't worry, I can sleep someplace else." Janet lay down on the floor and wrapped herself in her jacket, Brad lay down next to Magenta and she buried her face into his shoulder. Brad placed a hand on her back. Frank and Rocky yelled at each other, Janet stood up and sat next to Magenta,
"What did he do, can I see?" Magenta took off her nightgown to display a few whip marks, a deep cut on her right arm, some bruises and a gash running up her abdomen. Janet gasped and her eyes clouded with tears, Magenta lay down, Janet spread herself out on her jacket and Brad pulled the sheets up to his face. His eyes remained wide open all night.